Autumn has long been Sahel's favourite season; he met his home ten harvest moon ago, two weeks shy of his seventeenth birthday, right at the beginning of the season. To this day Sahel still thinks that that autumn was the most beautiful in the history of seasons. Everything was the same shade of light copper red as her hair, the night skies were as beautiful as her light green eyes. The weather was ever-changing like her personality, but no matter how warm or cold it got; it was always welcoming. Just like her.
Athena Terra Wolf.
That is her name. Though Sahel believes her parents should have named her Aphrodite for she has the kind of beauty only the goddess of beauty should be able to carry. Her smile offers the kind of etherealness a perfect sunset does and her hugs are like gentle winds engulfing you in love. Her voice is like a dip in your favourite beach and her laugh is as calming as the waves of the sea.
They did everything together that autumn. Where she was, he was and where he was, she was. She became his home though she was only on vacation. That autumn, each time she said his name Mother Nature sang in approval, Sahel believes she was trying to tell them they were falling in love but they were too busy living out the autumn to take heed to her warnings.
Athena made him hike; something that before her he was too lazy to try and after her became the staff of life. She is the kind of person that can convince you to go commit murder and make it sound like the purest thing on earth. She's beautiful and she knows it, so she uses it to her advantage; she ensures that she gets whatever she wants, whenever she wants it and she never takes no for an answer.
She is powerful, just like her name. Her beauty adds to her grace and her grace makes her appear as royalty. When she walks there is power in every step; in every sway of her hips, there is sincerity. Her head is always high, even when the world is tearing her shoulders down; she is strong. Stronger than most. And as unbearable as the world is, it never gets to her.
She loves nature and she likes to think nature loves her too; she says her heart is in the sea, her soul with the sky, and her mind with everything in between. When we had our first kiss, Sahel thinks his soul left him to join hers in the sky and the more time they spent together the more his mind meddled with hers in the spaces between the sea and sky. His heart, however, did not find its way to the sea, it found its way to her chest to replace the heart she gave to the sea.
It has been a decade since he has last seen Athena but his heart has been hers all this time and he believes it will be hers for the rest of his life.
Athena left when the autumn was taking its last breath; that winter felt as if an iceberg had taken over the land but it didn't bother him because it felt worse in his empty chest. She left, and for good reason but she forgot to return his heart; and his soul, -still tangled with hers- followed her through the skies and has been with her all this time. The one thing she left with him was his mind, languishing in the spaces between the sea and the sky.
The winter after her lasted three hundred and sixty-five days; each day bringing Sahel a different kind of pain. The last thing she said to him before she left was "I love you pumpkin" a phrase that with her southern American accent sounded more beautiful than it should have been. He loved her too, he knew it, she knew it too and so did the rest of the town but he did not know how to form the words to say it to her. He did not want her to leave though she did not come to his hometown to stay but she had to her father gave her a choice "stay and build your love or come home and get an education" and truly there is only one acceptable thing to do in such a situation.
Sahel told her to go home and get her education. She cried into his chest that night, the stars looked dull and the sky rumbled in sadness as it watched the two star-crossed lovers say goodbye for the last time. The winds were harsh and the moon was nowhere to be seen; the autumn was over just as their love was to be and there was nothing either of them could have done to change it.
